NEW DELHI: The English department of the University of Delhi (DU) issued a notification on Tuesday hiking the PhD fees even as the teachers’ union Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) held a protest against the hike. Rejecting the revision, the protesting teachers said they would take up the issue with the statutory body of the Varsity.
The teachers had highlighted that the English department has suddenly increased the PhD fees to nearly `24,000. Last year, the fee for the same course was Rs 1,932. According to the notice issued, the revised fee for PhD scholars admitted with effect from the academic year 2023-24 will be Rs 17,118 and excess payment. Abha Dev Habib, secretary of the DTF said,
“Through a notification issued today, the English department has revised the fees of the PhD programme marginally. This revision is not satisfactory. An increase in the fees of PhD was never placed for discussion in the statutory bodies. This year, the fee for the PhD programme has been doubled across the departments. This is unacceptable to us.”
“Not only should there should be parity in the fee structures of a programme across departments and faculties but it should also reflect the publicly funded nature of the university. The shift in the policy to replace grants to higher education loans and thrusting financial autonomy through schemes like graded autonomy have resulted in fee inflation and self-financing courses,” she reasoned.
The DTF had written to the Vice-Chancellor Prof Yogesh Singh earlier on November 2 calling it an arbitrary and astronomical hike. Several student organisations and teachers’ unions will be holding a protest demonstration against fee hikes.